A California teen is gaining praise for speaking to a blind and deaf man on a recent Alaska Airlines flight when no one else – not even the flight attendants – could.
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Clara Daly, 15, has been studying sign language for less than a year at her Calabasas high school, but that didn’t stop her from helping her fellow passenger communicate and keeping him company, KCBS.
Clara and her mother, Jane Daly, were flying home from Massachusetts when a flight attendant asked if anyone knew sign language, the teen told the local station.
“They thought that he might need something and they weren’t sure how to communicate,” she said.
That’s when the teen decided to press the call button.
“[The flight attendant] said ‘So, we have a passenger on the plane who’s blind and deaf. So, do you know how to finger spell?’ Clara said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah I totally know how to finger spell.’”
Clara then signed letters into the man’s hand to communicate.
The man, named Tim, said he would like some water and asked how much time was left on the flight.
He later asked for Clara again.
“He, like, didn’t need anything,” she said. “He was just like lonely and wanted to talk.”
So, that’s what they did for the remaining hour of the flight.
Despite her good deed, Clara, who is dyslexic, worried she may jumble her letters during the conversation.
“I was thinking ‘wow this is really cool, I hope I don’t spell anything wrong,’” she said.
Clara’s mother posted photos of the pair as they communicated to Facebook, sparking people to praise the teen’s act of kindness.
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“After the flight, Clara told me that she thought it was meant to be that our original flight was cancelled and we were placed on this flight so that she could be there to help this man,” Daly wrote.
https://www.facebook.com/jane.daly.501/posts/10156396022402726
Clara’s parents expressed how proud they are of their daughter.
“She has an amazing soul,” Daly said.
Clara plans on becoming a senator one day and stated that she will sign to the audience as she makes speeches.
(H/T: KCBS)